IKEA essay

Business climate in the US appeared to be more competitive than in Europe, and IKEA found out that it had to advertise just to stay in business. Several decisions on TV advertising helped to reduce the overall cost of advertising and allowed to address a large audience of potential customers. First of all, marketing department of IKEA in the US chose a unique advertising message and a strong slogan. The company replaced its Moose symbol with a slogan “It’s a big country. Someone’s got to furnish it”ť (Johansson, 2003). With regard to TV advertising, 8 advertising spots were created, which showed different kinds of people at different stages of their life (the ones which were most likely to need new furniture) which benefited from shopping at IKEA. These groups of customers included a young family, a couple whose children left home, a divorced woman, and even a homosexual couple (Johansson, 2003). As a result, IKEA attracted public attention and managed to target diverse groups of customers (thus reducing overall advertising expenditures needed to cover all these groups).

Â Suggestions of further development of IKEA

IKEA originated in Sweden, and during the first 15 years of its development it entered mostly European markets (Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, etc.). Later on, besides Europe, the company managed to expand to Japan, China, and a number of other Asian countries, Â Australia, Canada, Arab countries, and the US (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2007). Currently there are 37 IKEA locations in the US, which is the largest number of IKEAs in foreign countries, after Germany (Segal-Horn & Faulkner, 2010). Although this figure is significant, US market is huge, and the demand for household goods in the US is very significant (Albaum & Duerr, 2008). IKEA invested a lot of efforts in the US market: adapted its marketing process, adjusted approaches to management, catered the choice of products, etc. It will be most effective for IKEA to continue expansion in the US market, and to locate at least one store in every state.

There might be further challenges for IKEA in the US market, due to specific consumer tastes, tight competition and government regulations. However, IKEA is a global leader at furniture market (Albaum & Duerr, 2008), and it is reasonable for the company to use its leading position to the fullest, and increase their presence in the US.